Monday

John Waters reads from “Mr. Know-It-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder” from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at First Parish Cambridge Unitarian Universalist, 3 Church St./1446 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square. Tickets are $28.75 (with fees, $31.18) with a copy of the book. The auteur behind transgressive movie classics such as “Pink Flamingos” and “Polyester” is also a raconteur, and proves it on many subjects, from how to fail upward in Hollywood to how to cheat death, with cameos by everyone from Divine to Johnny Depp. Information is here.

Tuesday

Glass band performance from 6 to 7 p.m. at The MIT Museum, 265 Massachusetts Ave., in The Port neighborhood. Free, with limited seating. MIT’s Glass Lab director, Peter Houk, star musician Mark Stewart and their glass band colleagues create a one-of-a-kind symphony of sound. Meet the artists and explore their unique, handmade instruments. Information is here.

Wednesday

GrownUp StoryTime: “Pollen Prophecies” from 7 to 8 p.m. at Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., near Union Square, Somerville. Free. Expect tales of pollen and the pollinators in their various meanings at this storytelling – like storytime before bed, except this replaces a loved one with a weird stranger, warm milk with craft brews and your bedroom with Aeronaut’s tap room. Short fact, fiction and other material written by the community is handed to performers to see what happens. Information is here.

Casey Cep reads from “Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee” with Jamaica Kincaid from 7 to 8:15 p.m. at Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square. Free. Harper Lee traveled from New York City to her native Alabama with the idea of writing her own “In Cold Blood,” after helping Truman Capote research his true-crime classic 17 years earlier. But this tale of murder and racial politics in the Deep South defeated Lee – and Cep explores why, along with telling the tale herself in her book and in conversation with author and Harvard University professor Kincaid. Information is here.

Shay Alexi at the Boston Poetry Slam, from 7:15 p.m. to midnight at The Cantab Lounge, 738 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. There’s a $3 cover for this 18-plus show. The Atlanta poet and performance artist (author of this year’s “Diary of a Ghost Girl,” seen in a photo by R.J. Owens) explores the intersections of tenderness and aggression in a reading following an hour of open mic starting at 8 p.m. Information is here.

TV Dinner at 8 p.m. at Once Lounge + Ballroom, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville. Tickets are $10 in advance, or $12 at the door. How is Ken Reid (of the “TV Guidance Counselor” podcast) not involved in this event? It’s a night inspired by cult television series that intersperses music with ad jingles and promo spots, layered with remixed projected visuals. Cotton Candy reinterprets classic PSAs, commercials and earworms; all-grrrl supergroup Julee Cruise Director covers the “Twin Peaks” soundtrack; and the Argo Arkestra supergroup pays tribute to the seminal Japanimation soundtrack of “Star Blazers.” Information is here.

Thursday

“Untold Possibilities at the Last Minute” reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at Cambridge Arts’ Gallery 344, 344 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge. Free. This exhibition on the state of climate change, up through Oct. 4, brings together artists with music by Gap Dynamics; the poem “Earthrise” by National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman is read by Toni Bee; and tastings of foods adapted for a warmer future, including the beverage kvass, a Japanese knotweed sorbet from Toscanini’s, honey toffee, oat-based ice cream and Impossible Meat prepared by Clover Food Lab. Information is here.

Live Open Mic Night from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Cambridge Community Television, 438 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Free. A seventh round of stage time for musicians, poets, comedians and more – enthusiastic audience members are also welcome – that gets broadcast on Cambridge cable channel 8. (Sign up for five- to eight-minute slots at tinyurl.com/y38cwldo.) Information is here.

Cellist Zoë Keating performs from 8 to 10 p.m. at First Parish Cambridge Unitarian Universalist, 3 Church St./1446 Massachusetts Ave., Harvard Square. Tickets are $28. This one-woman orchestra uses a foot-controlled laptop to record layer upon layer of cello as she plays, creating intricate, haunting and compelling music. Information is here.

“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [Abridged]” from 8 to 10 p.m. (and repeating Friday and Saturday and then three more times through June 1) at Unity Somerville, 6 William St., just off College Avenue near Davis Square, Somerville. General admission is $20 (with fees, $21.99). A race by eight actors to perform all of Shakespeare’s 37 plays in about 90 minutes. Information is here.

Friday

Campfire. Festival from 6 p.m. to midnight today; noon to midnight Saturday and Sunday; and noon to 10:30 p.m. Monday at Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $10 for daily passes or $25 for a weekend pass. Passim’s twice-a-year homegrown festival of Americana, bluegrass, blues, Celtic, country, folk and related musical styles runs throughout the long Memorial Day weekend with 40 hours of live music from more than 90 acts (including Prateek, pictured). Originally just a way to fill a bad booking weekend in 1998, the festival now competes with the rock- and pop-focused Boston Calling across the river. The distressingly punctuated Campfire. aims to develop talent and celebrate the local music scene, with organizers saying shows can blur the line between performer and audience member – just like might happen sitting around an actual campfire, strumming a guitar or two. The all-ages festival, now in its 21st year, has a full schedule here.

Latin American Poetry Book Launch: Berenguer & Rodríguez from 7 to 9 p.m. at Grolier Poetry Book Shop on 6 Plympton St., Harvard Square. Free. Readings by Kristin Dykstra, Anna Deeny Morales and Eilyn Lombard Cabrera celebrate the launch of books of Latin American poetry (in English translation) from Ugly Duckling Presse: “Materia Prima” by Amanda Berenguer and “The Winter Garden Photograph” by Reina María Rodríguez. Information is here.

“Happy Birthday, Bob”: A Tribute to Bob Dylan from 7 to 9 p.m. at The Burren, 247 Elm St., Davis Square, Somerville. Tickets are $20 in advance, or $25 at the door. Some of of New England’s premier singer-songwriters – Danielle Miraglia, Matt Borrello, Greg Klyma and Ryan Fitzsimmons – get together to play Dylan songs from throughout his career. Information is here.

“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [Abridged]” from 8 to 10 p.m. (and repeating Saturday and then three more times through June 1) at Unity Somerville, 6 William St., just off College Avenue near Davis Square, Somerville. General admission is $20 (with fees, $21.99). Information is here.

Saturday

FutureFood: Tastings of Foods for Our Warmer Future from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Cambridge Main Library, 449 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge. Free. Matthew Battles and Keith Hartwig bring an interactive culinary encounter, this time with Japanese knotweed sorbet prepared by Gus Rancatore of Toscanini’s – part of the “Untold Possibilities at the Last Minute” exhibition on climate change coming to the Cambridge Arts Council’s Gallery 344 from May 20 to Oct. 4. Information is here.

“The Castle of Cagliostro” weekend matinee from 3 to 4:10 p.m. at the Harvard Film Archive at The Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $5, or free with a current Cambridge Public Library card, and are available starting at 2:15 p.m. outside the screening room. This 1979 anime showing the shapeshifting antics of Arsène Lupin III was the first from Hayao Miyazaki – a high-spirited, witty and very mischievous entertainment for those not afraid of a little darkness running through the veins of their children’s comic heroes. Recommended for ages 10 and onward. Information is here.

Youth Underground’s “Act Up and Vote!” from 7 to 8:30 p.m. (and repeating Sunday) at at the Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Tickets are $10 (with fees, $11). These original performances investigate social issues relevant to young people – this year, voting – written from interviews with community members and experts and in-school residencies with area students. Written by Betsy Bard and directed by Vincent Ernest Siders. Information is here.

“Wit & Mirth” from 8 to 9:30 p.m. at Lilypad, 1353 Cambridge St., Inman Square. Admission is $10. In 1698, Thomas d’Urfey published the smash-hit book of comic songs “Wit & Mirth.” David William Hughes sings some of them, some of his own and some of yours that he’ll make up for you, honed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. FringeGuru called it “Hilarious.” Information is here.

“WasteLAnd” concert from 8 to 10 p.m. at Harvard’s John Knowles Paine Concert Hall, 3 Oxford St., just north of Harvard Square and Harvard Yard. Free. The Harvard Group for New Music brings in wasteLAnd, a Los Angeles-based concert series featuring avant-garde and experimental music and focusing on local performers and living composers. For this show, expect Chris Lock’s “No Plume as a Trace,” Max Murray’s “Hlimman: Beneath the Earth,” Elena Rykova’s “Silenced,” Chris Swithinbank’s “I began the day inside the world trying to look at it, but it was lying on my face, making it hard to see” and John Pax’s “Where the Quiet Rests.” Information is here.

Campfire. Festival from noon to midnight today and Sunday; and noon to 10:30 p.m. Monday at Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $10 for daily passes or $25 for a weekend pass. Information is here.

“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare [Abridged]” from 8 to 10 p.m. (and repeating three more times through June 1) at Unity Somerville, 6 William St., just off College Avenue near Davis Square, Somerville. General admission is $20 (with fees, $21.99). Information is here.

Sunday

Marcel Inhoff and Andrew Singer poetry reading and exhibit from 2 to 5 p.m. at Outpost 186, 186.5 Hampshire St., Inman Square. Marcel Inhoff, author of “Prosopopeia” (Editions Mantel, 2015), and the chapbook “Our Church is Here” (Pen & Anvil, 2018) as well as poems and essays in German and English, gives his first reading in the United States. Andrew Singer, a poet and visual artist who directs the Trafika Europe program, reads and exhibits prints of pen-and-ink drawings selected from 30 years of works. Refreshments provided. Information is here.

Campfire. Festival from noon to midnight; and noon to 10:30 p.m. Monday at Passim, 47 Palmer St., Harvard Square. Tickets are $10 for daily passes or $25 for a weekend pass. Information is here.

Youth Underground’s “Act Up and Vote!” from 3 to 5:30 p.m. (and repeating Sunday) at at the Central Square Theater, 450 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. Tickets are $10 (with fees, $11). Information is here.